Chimpanzees find yawning contagious even if they are just imitating a cartoon
character, according to a new study.

Scientists have long known that yawning can spread, like other facial actions such as smiling and frowning, through groups.

Even when humans watch cartoons or soap operas they identify with the people being represented, even though they know they are not real.

But researchers wanted to test if animals would respond in the same way to fictional characters.

The study, by researchers at Emory University in America, found that whenever an animated chimpanzee yawned in a cartoon the real chimpanzee watching would often also yawn.

The team behind the research believe that the findings, which are published in the journal Biology Letters, suggests that the animals can and do empathise with a fictional world and that they treat the cartoons almost as one of their own species.